This routine from actor/comedian Jeff Lewis may be, simultaneously, the reason for the existence of Streetplay.com and our choice for “video of the century.” As Rod Serling would say, “submitted for your approval”…

It is like the Twilight Zone, isn’t it? No further comment from us other than, “Get out and play.” Thanks again to the ever perspicacious Lenore Skenazy for bringing this video to our attention.

Steve was a good man and a friend to Streetplay. His absence is still sorely missed. His name and memory lives in our hearts and minds at Streetplay as well as legions of people in the NYC stickball community.

We were sad to hear of today’s passing of Dennis Hopper. Dennis and Streetplay crossed paths in 1999 during the filming of Knockaround Guys, which featured a scene where he and John Malkovich played handball (see our coverage of behind-the-scenes action). Here’s the film trailer:

This wasn’t Hopper’s crowning cinematic achievement (they waited until 2002 to even release the picture), but we still have fond memories of seeing him chasing a little blue ball around the court.

Perhaps more memorable in Hopper’s connection to sport was his popular series of Nike advertisements playing the paranoid, unhinged character Stanley. Here’s a memorable ad, a 1995 Super Bowl commercial:

Also not to be forgotten is Hopper’s portrayal of the down-and-out “Shooter” in the film Hoosiers. Here’s a scene featuring a temporarily rehabilitated Shooter:

We’ve mentioned Lenore Skenazy more than once here on our blog; here’s a video of her positing the idea that parents don’t necessarily need to get involved and drive their kids’ play, suggesting that it may actually be detrimental. After Lenore, a bunch of mothers you’ve never heard of chime in, agreeing or disagreeing based on their own experiences.

It would have been preposterous, at least for me or anyone I ever knew as a child, for parents to hunker down with us as we played stickball, skully, or anything else outside. That time was referred to as “going out to play” by parents and kids alike. We figured things out on our own, learned basics of fair play, wrote our own script for the day. And had fun.

I did play board games like Scrabble enough with my parents, but that’s not what I remember as “play.” What do you all think?

Careful readers of this blog may remember our last post about Baron Ambrosia, the host of Bronxnet’s show Bronx Flavor, and a YouTube clip showing him playing handball against someone dressed like Divine’s character in Pink Flamingos. The Baron has explained it all in his recently released episode: he’s playing for the Bronx against the evil “Queen of Westchester” to determine the ownership of City Island:

Baron Ambrosia plays handball-click to watch the episode on BronxFlavor.com

The Baron doesn’t provide an embed code for us to plant the show in our blog–and it’s not on YouTube–so click through Web 1.0 style and enjoy the contest! By the way: I’ve seen The Queen of Westchester many a time lurking through the Galleria in White Plains.

So as we’re putting together our Streetplay YouTube channel, we stumbled across this video of people playing a “Traditional Malaysian game” with bottlecaps on a round tabletop. Looks like fun!

If anyone has more information on what the heck this game is called or how it’s played, let us know in the comments section of this post! Until we find out, we’re going to call it “Malaysian skully“–kind of like “Chinese handball” but hopefully without the racist overtones.

We had videos on Streetplay way before there was a YouTube, but we have to admit, those guys have done it a little better than us. So, in the “if you can’t beat ’em, use ’em” kind of way, we’ve added our own channel on YouTube:

The latest thing in children’s play? The recess coach! This is a great listen from NPR’s Tell Me More program, featuring Jill Vialet (president and founder of Playworks), and NYC’s own Free Range Kids evangelist, Lenore Skenazy. Even Lenore, who scoffed at the idea at first (we’re guilty on that one too), sees some benefit beyond the knee-jerk “harumpfing.” This is mainly because no one is teaching kids any “actual reality” games to play anymore; the traditional way that kids learn games–from older kids–is going away because the older kids don’t know the games nowadays either!

Listen and decide for yourself… and remember that Streetplay’s Rulesheets are always there if you want: print them out and give them to your kids.

There’s this game called Maktot. It’s also called Kadima. According to this article in a recent issue of Hadassah Magazine, Maktot, “…Hebrew for rackets, is a bizarre sport: It has practically no rules, no winners and can go on forever, making it in many respects a metaphor for the Middle East conflict.” It’s played like this: “…two players, […]

Floris Koot, inventor of Switchball, has created a detailed, and highly playable description of a truly playful, and playfulness-inspiring re-interpretation of what sports are really for. Fun, of course. He explains: The game is played with 5 to 7 teams at the same time, in a field that is preferably one big circle. The sport is fluid. […]

A message from Lord Peters, Sledge-Hammer-Wielder-in-Chief: Hey kids! Here we are playing Mondo Croquet in San José, the capital of the fine country of Costa Rica! As you may know, our long range goal is to be part of the Summer Olympics, perhaps you’ve heard of it… Here’s a step towards our goal – friends […]

Those people in the picture are trying to see how many inner tubes one person can lift. What this is, is a picture of something else you can do with junk to bring fun where there’s not enough. It’s just one of the Record Breaking activities from Ron Jones wonderful book Shared Victory, a Collection […]